Today, 15th June 2020, is Zimbabwe’s “Presidential
Day of Prayer and Fasting!”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, himself, at State
House surrounded by a number of the nation’s church leaders, led in the prayer
and fasting. He prayed for God’s forgiveness for all our sins and for Him to heal
our land Zimbabwe of the corona virus.
“Forgive those who have worship idols and false
gods! Forgive us for all our immorality and uncleanliness! Forgive us for every
act of injustice and corruption that has made the poor to suffer and the
innocent to die,” beamed Mnangagwa’s voice.
“Forgive us as individuals and as a nation even for
the sins for which we may be unaware ….. You are a merciful god and we ask you
to forgive our sins and heal our land, the land of Zimbabwe. Make this storm to
cease ….”
My mind was drifting; Mnangagwa’s voice reminded me
of Unoka in Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart.
“Many years ago when Okonkwo was still a boy his
father Unoka, had gone tp consult Agbala. The priestess in those days was a
woman called Chika. She was full of power of her go, and she was greatly feared.
Unoka stood before her and began his story,” wrote Achebe.
“’Every year,’ he said sadly, ‘before I put any
crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the
law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams.
I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the
first rains has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear. I weed –‘
‘Hold your peace!’ screamed the priestess, her
voice terrible as it echoed through the dark void. ‘You have offended neither
the gods nor your fathers. And when a man is at peace with his gods and his
ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his
arm. You Unoka, are known in all the clan for the weakness of your matchet and
your hoe. When your neighbours go out with their axe to cut down virgin forests,
you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labour to clear. They cross
seven rivers to make their farms, you stay home and offer sacrifice to a
reluctant soil.
‘Go home and work like a man!’”
That is truly prophetic!
“Hold your peace!’ the voice of the modern-day
Chika would scream at Mnangagwa. “The people of Zimbabwe have offended neither
the gods nor their fathers. And when a nation is at peace with its gods and
ancestors, the nation’s prosperity will be good or bad according to the country’s
system of governance.
“You Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and your fellow
Zanu PF cronies, are known the world over for incompetence, corruption and vote
rigging. When your neighbours pass laws to protect and uphold the freedoms and
human rights of all their people, you have ridden roughshod over your people
denying them their freedoms, rights and human dignity to gratify your
insatiable greed for political power and wealth.
“40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions
have left millions of Zimbabweans living in abject poverty and made Zimbabwe
one of the poorest nations on earth. Instead, of owning up to your misrule and failures;
you bury your head in the sand and blame the drought, sanctions, etc. for the country’s
misfortunes.
“Corona virus is a pandemic that has befallen all
nations, hence the name, pandemic. Those nations like South Korea and New Zealand
who have mobilised the human and material resources timeously have weathered
the corona virus storm with very low economic loses and human suffering and
deaths.
“Zimbabwe’s economy was already in total meltdown and
its heath care service all but collapsed and this Zanu PF’s blundering
incompetence in the handling of the corona virus has only made a bad situation
even worse. It is already clear that corona virus will be dealing a terrible
economic, social and humanitarian blow to Zimbabwe.
“After 40 years of bad governance and with the
country’s very existence on the line; the people of Zimbabwe must finally grasp
the nettle implement the democratic reforms necessary to end the curse of bad
governance. Like Unoka, we must finally work like a man!
According to the Ministry of Health and Child care, all 27 cases were recorded from South African returnees who have already been put on isolation.
ReplyDelete"As at 14 June 2020, Zimbabwe had 383 confirmed cases, including 54 recoveries and four deaths," said the Ministry.
Here we go again! From these figures, Zimbabwe does not have a local corona virus problem. It is naïve to believe the virus is not spreading among locals especially when we are not testing even suspected covid-19 cases.
The number of covid-19 cases are steadily going up and the signs are the numbers are yet to peak.
ReplyDeleteWe can say that most people at the quarantine centres are contracting the virus from there. Not all of them arrive with Covid-19.
People are just being mixed – old comers and newcomers. They are not being grouped accordingly and this may be one of the ways that the centres are always recording new positive cases daily.
Dr Matara urged the government to abandon Rapid tests for screening and diagnostics and to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for all inmates on the first 1st and 8th days to prevent infection within the centres.
He said:
“Another issue is the testing kits. We have been advocating for the PCR test on the first and eighth day as it is more sensitive but the government has ignored that.
The World Health Organisation has clearly stated that the Rapid test should not be used for screening and diagnostics but we are still using it.
To many doctors, the test does not make sense because its results are not conclusive. The government simply needs to apply the gold standard and do the PCR test.
Zimbabwe’s new coronavirus cases are predominantly recorded in quarantine centres, with 27 people – all returnees from South Africa – testing positive for the virus on Sunday.
It is heartening that WHO and ZADHR have picked up on the tragic human situation happening in these quarantine centres. It is absolutely inexcusable that many of these centres do not have something as basic as clean running water.
Allowing newcomers to mix with those who have been at the centre for a while defeats the point of holding people for a fixed period as some one towards the end of their stay can be infected by some one who has just arrived. Keep the groups separate will be very easy to do if there was the political will.
The other tragedy that is going unnoticed is the failure by the regime to carry out tests for covid-19 among the locals. It is an outrage that we are still not testing everyone with covid-19 like symptoms at all our clinics and hospitals. This should be a standing directive to all our health care workers!
Zimbabwe is clearly proud to have some of the lowest per capita covid-19 cases and deaths in the world, officially. The truth is the figures are low because we are not testing, tracking and tracing as aggressively as we should. Understating the seriousness of the corona virus in the country has only allowed the virus to spread far and wide and the end result is far more people will get the virus and many will die!
"It is very clear that other people don't understand the new dispensation. In Zimbabwe, for years, our mouths were closed because we were not allowed to say anything which was perceived to be against the government. But when we fought for the new dispensation, we wanted to cut that yoke, freedom of speech is a fundamental right of a human being," said former Cabinet minister Tshinga DubeDube.
ReplyDelete"We are in a situation whereby many people still don't understand the new dispensation. New dispensation means freedom, if we fail to accept that then there is no new dispensation anywhere. People are still living in the past. Censorship is a part of oppression, why do you censor?
"Let people censor what they read; you don't have to censor yourself. We are in a situation where we are in transition from oppression into freedom but anyway we have a lot of problems that we are facing now, but let us give a chance that maybe as we go on we may realise that we are not doing the best but we can do the best."
There are two basic reasons Zimbabweans must not be fooled into believing people like Dube:
1) When he was in a position of power and authority, when he could have pushed for real democratic changes, he said nothing. Now that he has been elbowed out of power he now suddenly discover his voice and conscience. Give him the right bribe and he will once again lose his voice and conscience!
2) Only an empty head like Dube would think there is freedom of expression in Zimbabwe, a feather in the cap of the new dispensation. Besides, there are many other freedoms such as free, fair and credible elections which the new dispensation continue to deny the people.
@ N Ndlovu
ReplyDeleteThis culture of disagreeing with those express their opinion is what has led to where the country is. Varying views including criticism give birth to a healthy society.
True but we are also in this mess because some people speak when they are after the people's vote and as soon as they get into power they forget about freedom of expression, etc.
After 40 years of being taken for a ride, Zimbabweans must wake-up!
The MDC Alliance Youth Assembly is very disturbed by the regime’s move to deny our female youth leaders bail.
ReplyDeleteWe maintain that our comrades were abducted, tortured and sexually abused and as such they are supposed to appear in any normal court as complainants and not as the accused.
This is just barbarism, plain and simple. These three ladies have not done anything to deserve this continued abuse!
Mnangagwa is aware of the worsening economic situation in the country and knows the people are getting restless, they want change. He is hoping by ill-treating and shooting to kill the people he can cow the nation into continued submission. The pressure for change is building up and one of these fine days it will explode in his face!
@ Simba Chikanza
ReplyDeleteIt’s about time MDC Alliance President Nelson Chamisa and his party rise up to save the nation from genocide.
Some politicians have alleged saying there is no evidence of genocide in Zimbabwe, and these use the argument of threshold, saying it has not been surpassed. But the figures are there, and they run into the tens of thousands.
There is a genocide taking place right now, thanks to this Zanu PF government's blundering incompetence hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are going to die of covid-19 and hunger. 40 years of Zanu PF misrule has left the country weak with no health care service to deal with the corona virus pandemic. Donors, who could have helped, have all walked away because they know their donations will be looted by the Zanu PF ruling elite.
It is up to us, the people of Zimbabwe, to make sure we have a competent government and yet for 40 years and counting we have done nothing about it. Nothing!
As a people, Zimbabweans are a naive and gullible lot, no one else would have believed the November 2017 was anything other than a continuation of the same corrupt and tyrannical rule of the last 37 years! Worst of all, we have learned nothing from the 40 years of blundering from pillar to post, we will embrace the next village idiot who comes along, no questions asked, as long as his name is not Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa!
Those who do not learn from the past are destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
Citizens in Harare, Mvurwi, Bulawayo, Zvishavane, Ngezi, Gweru, Kwekwe and Shurugwi, among other places, went about their business, ignoring Mnangagwa's prayer day.
ReplyDeleteThose who spoke to NewsDay yesterday said the call was an insult to everything Godly in nature.
An irate Harare resident, who refused to be named, said: "What really do they take us for? Fools? There is nothing spiritual about the problems that we are currently facing in Zimbabwe. They are practical problems that need real solutions; they should stop playing with the name of God.”
It is true, Mnangagwa is taking Zimbabweans for fools. He promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and yet not only did he blatantly rig the July 2018 elections but insisted the elections were free, fair and credible!
He asked for “forgiveness for corruption” and yet he did not lift a finger to end the wholesale looting of the nation’s diamonds that has been going on since 2006! WB, IMF and many international institutions and donors who could be giving Zimbabwe the desperately needed help to fight covid-19 have all but walked out in disgust at how again and again loans and donations have been looted by the ruling elite.
How many of Mnangagwa and his State House prayer group asked for forgiveness “for our ungodly sins”. After the prayers, went straight to their small-house for a quickie before going back home!
Of course, Mnangagwa and his cronies are hypocrites masquerading as the repented Saul on the road to Damascus!
Senhor Chinua Achebe’s Unoka was lazy but otherwise he was an honourable man. When he told priestess Chika ’Every year before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams.’ Sure enough he sacrifice one cock to Ani and the second to Ifejioku.
ReplyDeleteOur Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is a hypocrite and does not have a single drop of honourable blood in his veins. “Forgive those who have worship idols and false gods! Forgive us for all our immorality and uncleanliness! Forgive us for every act of injustice and corruption that has made the poor to suffer and the innocent to die,” Mnangagwa pleaded with his hands raised and eyes closed in priestly supplication.
We all know the wholesale looting of the nation’s diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa, of which Mnangagwa himself is one of the godfathers, which has been going on since 2006 was continuing 24/7 even as Mnangagwa was speaking.
How insulting, to whatever god Mnangagwa et al were praying, to ask for forgives “for all our immorality and uncleanliness” one minute and from the prayer meeting they head for the small-house for a quickie!
We know Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants. Yes they imposed themselves in 1980, one does not argue when you are lookup the business end of an AK47 rifle. Still, since then, there have been many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and the nation has wasted them all.
The last 40 years has been a relentless match deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth under this Zanu PF dictatorship. The corona virus outbreak caught us fast asleep, like the five foolish bridesmaids, the nation will pay dearly for it. If we do not do something to end this corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship then we rightly deserve to suffer and die in dumb anguish!
Mnangagwa and his cronies are corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrants; they will never change, like Unoka, they are beyond the pale.
Unoka was the boy Okonkwo’s father, none of have a say on who are parents are. The boy had a choice on whether he would be hard working and prosperous or be lazy and poor like his father.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies do not have the divine right to govern Zimbabwe and it is up to us to put an end to this oppressive tyranny and to reclaim our basic right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Zimbabwe can shake-off its past of Zanu PF’s corruption and blundering incompetence just as Okonkwo shook-off his father’s laziness!
DeleteThe message "Go home and work like a man!" was wasted on Unoka but not on his son. By the same token the same message is wasted on Mnangagwa but it should make sense to us, the people.
A highly reliable source within the army has revealed to ZimEye.com that soldiers have closed off all major urban centres in the country in protest to government’s move to reduce their salaries by ZWL$1000.
ReplyDeleteMembers of the military were apparently warned last month that they will receive reduced salaries this month (June) because a back pay that had been spread for four months – February to May – has been paid up.
Contacted for a comment, military spokesman Col Overson Mugwisi had a different story. He told ZimEye the ongoing military deployment is all to do with the coronavirus lockdown.
“Talk to the Police, they’re in charge of the lockdown,” he said, referring to the COVID lockdown.
When the regime reintroduced the US$ 2 or 3 months ago it was pegged at Z$25:US$1 and it is already trading at Z$80:US$1. So the soldier’s Z$1 000 (US$ 40) salary 3 months ago is now US$ 12.50!
At 800%, inflation surging ahead, and by the end of the year the Z$ 1 000 per month salary will be worth a few US cents!
The real tragedy is we have had some people, especially in the security sector and civil service, who have continued to prop up this failed Zanu PF dictatorship because they thought they were doing well. We need to end the criminal waste of human and material resources which is synonymous with this corrupt and tyrannical one-party state.
We need to end the culture of rigged elections without which the dictatorship will not last a day!
Magistrate Bianca Makwande on Monday 15 June 2020 ordered
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) to allow three
victims of abduction and torture, who she condemned to prison after
denying them bail, to be allowed access to food brought by their
lawyers after they complained of starvation while in detention.
The treatment being metered out to the three MDC ladies is a mockery of common sense. The three are accused of violating the corona virus lockdown laws and yet they are now being treated as dangerous criminals on par with Nigeria’s Boko Haram!
Magistrate Bianca Makwande on Monday 15 June 2020 ordered Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) to allow three victims of abduction and torture, who she condemned to prison after denying them bail, to be allowed access to food brought by their lawyers after they complained of starvation while in detention.
ReplyDeleteThe treatment being metered out to the three MDC ladies is a mockery of common sense. The three are accused of violating the corona virus lockdown laws and yet they are now being treated as dangerous criminals on par with Nigeria’s Boko Haram! Are we really incapable of empathy that we should treat a fellow Zimbabwean worse than the white colonialists treated blacks.
Are we really incapable of shaking off the selfishness that allowed blacks to hunt down their own kith and kin and sell them as slaves?
What these Zanu PF thugs have been doing these last 40 years has stained this nation and we should all hang our heads in shame for having allowed it to happen!
Finance permanent secretary cleared the Drax US$ 60 million contract, court is told.
ReplyDeleteThis case will come to nothing because it will soon be clear the permanent secretary had cleared the deal under instruction from some other Zanu PF big fish - too big to be caught in this feeble net!
What is the point of pleading for forgiveness for corruption, for example, when one is the godfather of corruption and is doing absolutely nothing to end the corruption. The nation is being robbed blind in Marange and Chiadzwa, this has been going on sine 2006 and continued 24/7 as Mnangagwa raised his arms to heaven and closed his eyes in supplication. What a hypocrite!
ReplyDeleteThe truth is it is for us the people of Zimbabwe to stop the corruption and greed that has poisoned the nation's institutions and dragged us all into this mess. God does not do for man what man can do for himself if he so wished. To pray for an end to this corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship is to suggest Mnangagwa and his cronies are too powerful for us ordinary mortals to hold to account. That, it must be said, is utter nonsense!